Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility<\/strong>, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free \u2014 just click TechCrunch Mobility<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n Proponents of autonomous vehicle technology have long argued that robotaxis and other self-driving vehicles will reduce crash incidents and make roads safer. And there is some evidence of that. But that doesn\u2019t mean there hasn\u2019t been a cost to those who are working (or have worked) for the companies developing that tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sean O\u2019Kane, senior reporter, special projects, dug into data submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration<\/strong> and found that test drivers for Waymo<\/strong> and Zoox<\/strong> sustained more than two dozen injuries in 2024 and 2025 from hard braking or other sudden movements made by the autonomous vehicles.\u00a0In some cases, these workers were sidelined for months after sustaining injuries like whiplash when the AVs stopped abruptly, and hard.<\/p>\n Check out his full story,<\/a> which includes interviews with former and current workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is one important item to consider. You might ask yourself, well what about the other AV developers? Surely, this isn\u2019t a problem isolated to Waymo and Zoox? And you\u2019re probably right. It\u2019s likely that test drivers for other AV developers are also getting injured, but the companies they work for may be exempt from OSHA\u2019s reporting requirements.<\/p>\n Got a tip for us on this story or others? Email Kirsten Korosec at\u00a0<\/em>kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O\u2019Kane at\u00a0<\/em>sean.okane@techcrunch.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been writing about Gatik<\/strong>, the autonomous vehicle startup known for its self-driving box trucks, since 2019 when it came out of \u201cstealth.\u201d At the time, I wasn\u2019t sure if the startup would survive. The hype cycle was already chewing up and spitting out AV startups and no one seemed close to commercializing their tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gatik has not only survived, but it has also crossed over from R&D lab to commercial operator, albeit at a small-scale compared with traditional human-driven delivery companies. (The company\u2019s box trucks are driverless and deliver freight from distribution centers to retails stores like Walmart.) And now, with $200 million<\/a> in fresh funding, it\u2019s pushing to scale. The round was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Millennium Management, ARK Invest, and Intact Private Capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is Gatik\u2019s largest funding to date. But I might argue that its multiyear commercial agreement with PepsiCo, which was signed in June and is part of $600 million in contracted revenue, is the bigger deal here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other deals that got my attention \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Airbound<\/strong>, an Indian startup building autonomous drones, raised $37 million<\/a> in a Series A round led by Greenoaks with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures.<\/p>\n Mubadala Capital<\/strong>, the alternative asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Company, agreed to acquire<\/a> a majority equity interest in Arrive Logistics<\/strong>, a truckload brokerage based in Austin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Regent Craft<\/strong>, a Rhode Island electric startup developing and manufacturing electric seagliders, raised $120 million<\/a> in a Series B round co-led by Mare Liberum and AE Ventures. (The seaglider is a class of vehicle called a wing-in-ground effect vehicle, or WIG.) Regent also secured about $120 million debt capital provided by Erebor Bank, which was launched by Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey. One note about Regent, a company I have followed for a while: The startup, which recently completed its 255,000-square-foot seaglider factory, is clearly pushing deeper into the defense sector, probably because there is money and partnerships to be had.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Vista Global Holding<\/strong>, a private aviation group based in UAE, is considering a European IPO<\/a> that could raise more than a $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n According to a recent YouGov survey, more Americans<\/strong> oppose police license plate cameras<\/a> than support them. Do you? Shoot me an email<\/a> and share your opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Any<\/strong>, an electric two-wheeler startup out of Belgium, is placing a bet on cargo space<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n General Motors<\/strong> is facing increased scrutiny from U.S. safety regulators after hundreds of incidents, more than 20 crashes or fires, and at least six injuries involving brake problems<\/a> in its EVs.<\/p>\n Ford<\/strong> has hired Dave Carroll<\/a> as president of the company\u2019s energy business. Carroll, who previously worked at ENGIE North America, will succeed long-time executive Lisa Drake.<\/p>\n Rivian<\/strong> CFO Claire McDonough<\/strong> is resigning from her position<\/a> and will leave at the end of October. Her tenure at Rivian came during a tough, and exciting (ahem IPO), period for the company. And her departure comes at another critical moment for Rivian as it takes on some of its biggest projects to date, including the robotaxi deal with Uber and scaling production and sales of its R2 SUV.\u00a0<\/p>\n Uber<\/strong> is launching a new live video streaming feature<\/a> that will allow parents to keep track of their children during rides.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waymo <\/strong>shared 10 lessons<\/a> it has learned after its vehicles had driven more than 200 million autonomous miles. The first lesson \u2014 that multimodal sensors are indispensable \u2014 received the most attention because it is in direct opposition to Tesla\u2019s<\/strong> camera-only approach. But there were other lessons that got my attention, including Waymo\u2019s promotion of vision language models (an area that is starting to get a lot of attention).\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Waymo is making more inroads overseas. The company announced that it plans to launch in Munich, Germany<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n One important clarification on what I wrote about last week. You might recall that Waymo<\/strong> shared information about its custom silicon chip<\/a> \u2014 specifically a 5 nm ASIC chip that is designed to handle the massive influx of raw data before it reaches the core \u201cbrain\u201d of the self-driving system. Waymo stated in its blog post:<\/p>\n \u201cWhile these ASICs alone deliver over 1,000 TOPS of ML performance dedicated to front-end processing and ML models, we optimize across the full stack to maximize achieved performance, especially in the low-batch regimes we often operate.\u201d<\/p>\n That line led me, and others, to believe that its one chip can deliver 1,000 TOPs (trillions of operations per second) of computing performance. I compared it to Nvidia\u2019s Drive AGX Thor automotive processor, noting it was about the same performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n But alas, one eagle-eyed reader reached out with some questions, which prompted me to turn to Waymo for official answers. A Waymo spokesperson told me, \u201cIt\u2019s for the system, not a single chip.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s an important distinction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\nDeals!<\/h2>\n
Notable reads and other tidbits<\/h2>\n
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One more thing \u2026<\/h2>\n